Tonight You Belong to me, my contemporary short released by Decadent as part of its very cool 1NS series, was inspired by the duet of Eddie Vedder and Cat Power on his Ukelele Songs CD. It's a sweet song full of yearning, and of course Eddie inspires me anytime I look at him. :)
The hero, Danny O'Malley, and the heroine, Jillian Jones, make a sweet duet both as a couple and onstage. They're crazy in love until a misunderstanding tears them apart. Danny has one last chance before Jilly quits Vegas for good. Madame Eve's 1Night Stand service.
When I was writing Tonight You Belong to Me, I saw in the deep brown soulful eyes of Danny O'Malley none other than Jake Gyllenhaal. I suppose Jake's role in The Prince of Persia helped inspire me, too. Strong and sensitive, with a weak spot for the woman he loves, Jake would be perfect as Danny. I'm not sure about his singing voice, but there's always overdubs!
Jilly's a sizzling, sexy, sassy Southern girl. As I wrote, I heard Reese Witherspoon's lilting voice in my head. From her role in Ring of Fire, I know she can sing. And she's gorgeous, but not in the helpless-little-girl way. She's feisty and stands up for herself. Reese is perfect as Jilly.
At first, I'd written Harry Connick, Jr. as the headlining Vegas act, and in my head, he's still in the story. Sorry, Harry, I know you love to act, but Bobby Benoit is now your generic name, which came about as a tangential mashup of Michael Buble and Tony Bennett. Don't ask me to explain how I got to Bobby Benoit.
